


Sweet Curiosity

by sweetrosei



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M, discussion of romantic and sexual orientations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-19
Updated: 2015-07-19
Packaged: 2018-04-10 03:44:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4375973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetrosei/pseuds/sweetrosei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Atsushi wants to know what love feels like. Seijuro helps him understand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sweet Curiosity

“How did you know?” Atsushi asked, watching Seijuro.

Seijuro had come to visit Atsushi at Yosen for the weekend and was currently comfortable on his desk chair while Atsushi lay on his bed. Since the winter cup, they’d grown closer again, even closer than they had been at Teiko. Seijuro had opened up about his mental health and Atsushi had accepted him easily. His friend had done as much as he could to help and an even deeper bond between them had formed. Atsushi talked more about everything, and they’d comfortably slipped into a routine where they’d usually end up leaning against each other when they were relaxing in private. Neither had questioned it out loud. However, Seijuro had recently had to start telling himself to stop that tingling in his gut because he wasn’t ready to have romantic feelings for a friend. 

“Know what exactly, Atsushi?” Seijuro asked. Even though he was back to calling his friends by their family names, he still used Atsushi’s given name because he’d asked him to. Apparently Atsushi liked how Seijuro said it.

“That you like guys?” Atsushi replied, seemingly nonchalant, but Seijuro could see the almost hidden curiosity there.

“Oh.” It had been 3 weeks since Seijuro had come out to Atsushi and Midorima and they had both accepted it. He planned to tell the others at some point, but he wanted to tell those two first. Considering he was the first queer person that Atsushi and Midorima apparently knew, he wasn’t surprised that they might have some curious questions.

“Partly because I prefer the way men look but mostly because I developed a few crushes on boys over the last few years. I didn’t act on any, but I knew what they were. Do you know what I mean, how a crush feels?” As far as Seijuro could remember, Atsushi had never mentioned any crushes to him, so he didn’t want to assume anything.

“Not really? You’re supposed to want to kiss them, right?”

“Not necessarily.” Atsushi’s reply made Seijuro glad he’d asked and not just assumed. He thought through how best to explain it. “You only really hear about the people that do like kissing, but there are a lot of people who don’t like that at all or only like it with someone they’re really close to.” He paused, giving Atsushi the option to ask for an elaboration if he needed one, before continuing. “Personally, I’m only interested in it if it’s with someone I have feelings for, and even then I wouldn’t want to do it for very long.”

“Oh.” Atsushi looked like he was absorbing the information but he didn’t look confused, which Seijuro understood as a positive sign. “How do you know then?”

“If it’s a crush?” Seijuro paused again. This would be hard to explain. “I imagine it might be different for others, but for me I was always really happy to be around them and I’d get this tingling in my stomach whenever we are close or they did something nice. I’d have this warm feeling in my chest when we hung out or I thought of them too. Although, I get that warmth and happiness when I think of my friends as well…” He frowned. “I’m sorry, Atsushi, I don’t think that was very helpful.”

Atsushi nodded a little, looking lost in thought. Seijuro watched him for a moment before deciding to add more to his attempt at explaining. “Not everyone feels it though, and that’s okay. Just like how there’s a range of sexualities, there’s a range of romantic orientations too. I can send you some links if you’d like? They really helped me when I wasn’t sure.”

Atsushi was listening again and nodded with an affirmative sound. “Thank you Akachin.” He opened a packet of crisps and held it out to Seijuro before taking some for himself.

They spent the rest of the day marathoning shows, snacking, and relaxing. When he’d returned home, Seijuro gathered the links as promised and emailed them to Atsushi. He wanted to help him discover more about himself, but he couldn’t help that small hope that maybe the discovery might mean he had a chance. No matter what happened, he would support his friend.

Atsushi read through everything Seijuro sent him and read several parts a few times. This was something that was going to take a lot longer than one night to work out.

Over the next few months the topic came up more but mostly in the way of general conversation rather than specifically about Atsushi. He wasn’t ready to talk about it yet and Seijuro wasn’t going to push.

Four months later they were in the Akashi family holiday home. All of the General of Miracles were there, along with the Rakuzan team. They had all come for a big holiday together at Seijuro’s invitation. His father and servants weren’t there, so they had the place to themselves.

It was the second day of eight. Most were in the pool or on the basketball court, but Seijuro had come in while Atsushi grabbed some more snacks and he grabbed his tablet.

“Akachin…” Atsushi started, sounding cautious.

“Yes, Atsushi?” Seijuro turned with a warm smile.

“How do you tell someone you like them?”

Seijuro looked surprised for a moment before smiling again. “A confession? You have a crush?”

Atsushi nodded and looked down a little, trying to hide his embarrassment.

“Well… some people just say it outright, while others like to do big romantic gestures or complex showy confession. Personally, I like the idea of doing it in a way that relates to something they like or in a way that’s very… you. If you understand what I mean.”

“Okay…” Atsushi looked more confident even though his voice didn’t sound it. Seijuro was pleased he’d given a somewhat satisfactory answer. “So you don’t like big things?”

Seijuro was glad no one else was around to hear that slightly poor phrasing. The others would have loved it. “I’m not against big gestures, I just like it if it’s personalised, whether that’s big or small. The most important thing is that you get your feelings across. It doesn’t really matter how you do it, as long as they can understand how much you care.”

“I’m not good at saying things like that.” Atsushi sounded disappointed.

“Then maybe write it? Love letters are cute.” That seemed to perk Atsushi up again and he looked like he’d had an idea.

Seijuro tried to subtly find out more about this crush but Atsushi wasn’t giving anything away. He tried not to get caught up in hoping it’s him or distressed that Atsushi liked someone else. He wanted to be happy for him.

On the penultimate day, everyone except Atsushi was banned from the kitchen. He was baking and didn’t want anyone in his way (which surprised the others but they weren’t going to argue and left him to it). He didn’t come out until 2 hours later, carrying a plate of cookies. Everyone quite happily grabbed one as he put the plate down between them and there was no further talk of what was Atsushi up to.

That evening, Kise, Kuroko, Aomine and Midorima were inside playing games on the PS4, while the Rakuzan group minus Seijuro were finishing the last of the cookies and playing drinking games with cards. Akashi, not interested in alcohol and not in the mood for games, was outside in the garden rereading one of his favourite novels. Atsushi had been watching both groups play for a while before he wandered outside too, carrying a small box.

Seijuro looked up as Atsushi approached and noticed he looked a little nervous. “Is everything okay, Atsushi?” he asked, letting the concern show on his face and closing his book.

Atsushi nodded but continued to look nervous.

“Would you like to join me?” Seijuro asked, gesturing to the chair next to him.

“This is for you” Atsushi spoke suddenly, almost cutting off the end of Seijuro’s question. Seijuro was a little surprised but quickly worked out that Atsushi’s nerves must be about what was in the box.

“Oh, thank you Atsushi” he accepted the box and moved to open it but froze when Atsushi suddenly told him to wait.

“Open it once I’m back inside…”

Seijuro frowned slightly in confusion but nodded. “Okay. I will.” He was eager to open it but would keep his word. He watched as Atsushi hurried away, as fast as Atsushi ever ‘hurried’ anyway, before looking down at the box. It was wrapped in purple wrapping paper with a red ribbon tied around it. The bow was a bit wonky and definitely looked handtied, so Seijuro assumed Atsushi had done it himself. He smiled as he looked at it, Atsushi was so much sweeter than most people thought.

He carefully untied the ribbon and peeled the paper away, intending to keep them. He put the wrapping to one side before opening the top of the box. What was inside made him breakout into a big smile. There were more of Atsushi’s cookies, except these were heart shaped. He gently took out the first one, which was decorated with red icing in hearts gradually getting smaller. The next cookie was a heart too, but ever so slightly different, so Seijuro knew Atsushi had shaped them by hand. They’d turned out really well, Seijuro would have been impressed if he wasn’t so distracted by the adrenalin rushing through him and if his heart wasn’t beating so fast at the fact he’d received homemade heart shaped cookies from his crush.

He put the cookie down on the wrapping to keep it clean and safe before reaching for the next one. The second one was decorated with red icing spelling _Aka-chin_. Seijuro laughed softly at how cute it was. As he took the third cookie out he gasped at what was written on it in icing.

_I like you_

He felt like his heart was going into overdrive and would fail any moment. He’d had some hope when Atsushi had been asking about crushes but he hadn’t dared truly believe it could be him. He steeled his nerves as he picked up the cookie and looked at the fourth one and final one. He stared at it in disbelief for a few seconds before bringing a hand up to his mouth in overjoyed surprise.

_Be mine?_

Seijuro made some excited happy noises that he would normally have been embarrassed by as he tried not to draw anyone’s attention to him. He wondered briefly if maybe Atsushi was watching him but when he looked towards the house he saw no one by the window. Seijuro quickly (but carefully) put the cookies back into the box and sealed it. He wanted to run to Atsushi and tell him his answer, but he didn’t want to announce it to everyone else. Before he reached the door he calmed his expression then went inside. The Rakuzan group were still drinking and the Miracles group were still playing games. Atsushi was sat on one of the sofas watching the Miracles group play.

Not wanting to draw attention to the box, Seijuro walked towards his bedroom to put it safely with his bag. He hoped Atsushi might follow him but after a few minutes of waiting he realised he wasn’t going to, so he headed back to everyone.

He went over to join Atsushi on the sofa, not giving anything away. He desperately wanted to tell him but he didn’t know how to without raising suspicion. He wanted to outright tell him, or rest his head on his shoulder, or subtly link their fingers together, anything to let him know that yes, yes he would be his. Seijuro soon realised that everyone was too absorbed in what they were doing to notice them, even though Atsushi looked so visibly nervous that anyone would be able to see it if they looked over.

After 10 minutes of internal debate while pretending to watch the others play, Seijuro made up his mind. He licked his lips as he bucked up the courage to turn his head and lean in slightly, close enough that Atsushi could hear him whisper “Yes”.

Atsushi stiffened and his eyes widened in response.

“I’m all yours.” Seijuro added, liking the way Atsushi’s cheeks had started turning pink. The pink would make their situation far less subtle but it was too cute for Seijuro to care about now. Plus, he was confident he could come up with a believable excuse for it if asked.

Atsushi nodded, not looking at Seijuro but the subtle smile he couldn’t keep off his face said it all.

Later on, when everyone had started heading to bed and they were alone, Seijuro finally got to hold Atsushi’s hand.


End file.
